SDMB Big League Fantasy Football 2012

SenorBeef · #1 07-16-2012, 02:05 AM

Last year's thread. (It incorrectly is titled 2010)

Everyone is invited back, so recruitment is not open yet, but I suspect we'll fall short. If you found yourself not wanting to bother with the league towards the end of the year, please don't bother to rejoin and let someone more active take your slot. Because it's hard to recruit for a league this big, I'm going to start early - if you don't sign up by the end of July someone else may end up getting your slot.

We're staying with the auction draft format we did last year unless there's widespread objection because it seemed to work out a lot better IMO. The only thing is that it becomes absolutely critical to attend the draft - generally in auction leagues, but specifically in this league where there's so much fierce competition for players and yahoo default ranked values are useless.

I picked the same relative day as we drafted last year - the Tuesday before the NFL opener. This gives takes our draft past the last round of cuts for NFL teams which are especially important in this league because we end up drafting the vast majority of nfl players. The draft is set for Tuesday, Sep 6 at 9:15pm eastern. We went to later starts last year to help west coasters get home from work, and the east coasters didn't seem to mind starting late, so unless there are objections I plan on using the same draft times as last year. If there's a problem with this, speak up now so that we can still get a good draft slot at the right time before they're all booked. It is very important that you attend the draft for this league.

I plan on using the sunday through tuesday waiver system for free agents that we used last year. Yahoo automatically puts all players on waivers as of 1pm Sunday, so you can submit a claim rather than having the person closest to the computer pick them up as free agents. We've done this for a while now. Yahoo now added a system where players go on waivers at the start of their games, so we don't need any special rule for Thursday and Saturday night games.

I also plan on doing the FAAB waiver system where you start with 100 to bid on players plus any money you have left over from the draft rather than using a rolling list. That seemed to work better.

I'm also going to keep the commissioner approval on trades for all the reasons I outlined last year. I will automatically and quickly approve any reasonable trade. If there's something fishy about a trade we'll discuss it.

Practically, this means you have later in the week to work out trades. Previously if you worked out a trade on friday evening, that trade wouldn't go through by the time Sunday's games started, so you'd be screwed if someone got hurt late in the week or if you just didn't have time to conduct the negotiations. Now you can make trades up until Sunday morning and still get them through before the game starts.

I'm usually around early Sunday mornings to push trades through, but if you make a very late trade on Saturday night or Sunday morning, I may not be able to approve it in time. If that happens, both of you should make your intent clear "I plan on starting player X I just traded for in place of player Y" and I can retroactively make the rosters reflect that.

If there are any problems with these policies, feel free to voice them and we'll discuss it.
League standings

2009:
1. Cobra Kai (Boozahol Squid, PI)
2. Donte's Torino (Taber)
3. Fightin' Quakers (Furt)
4. Scissor Me Timbers (Munch)
5. No Use For A Name II (RetroVertigo)
6. Frosted_Lightning
7. Varlos' Zzzzzz
8. We Do HGH (Stringer)
9. Curry Porkrinds (tds1273)
10. Antonican Druids (Oakminster)
11. Quentin's Jammers (Jules Andre)
12. Team Ed Gruberman (It's Not Rocket Surgery)
13. Kid_A
14. Unrelated Siblings Uncle Brother Walker)
15. Exploding Pancakes (SenorBeef)
16. Phoenix Redbirds (dalej42)
17. Master Baiters (mhendo)
18. Stinkers (Stink Pot Fish)
19. The Gusterrhoids (Justin_Bailey)
20. Court Jesters (D_odds)

2010:
1. Exploding Pancakes (SenorBeef)
2. Varlos' Zzzzzzz (VarlosZ)
3. Hamlets Out of Ideas (Hamlet)
4. No Use For A Name II (Retrovertigo)
5. Garcon's Cedilla (friend of MrSquishy)
6. Not Sure (brickbacon)
7. Evil Monkey (MTRG)
8. Up by three (Taber)
9. Scissor Me Timbers (Munch)
10. CMFD (Chuck, off board)
11. Curry Porkrinds (tds1273)
12. The Gusterrhoids (Justin Bailey)
13. Hey There Fancypants (Mr Squishy)
14. Frosted_Lightning (Frosted Glass)
15. The Brute Squad (Only Mostly Dead)
16. Court Jesters (d_odds)
17. Return of Ryan Leaf (Mhendo)
18. Sizzurp Sippers (Gray Ghost)
19. Unrelated Siblings (Uncle Brother Walker)
20. Phoenix Redbirds (dalej42)

2011:
1. Exploding Pancakes (SenorBeef)
2. Hamlets Out Of Ideas (Hamlet)
3. Court Jesters (d_odds)
4. Scissor Me Timbers (Munch)
5. Frosted_Lightning (Frosted_Glass)
6. Hey There Fancypants (MrSquishy)
7. Up By Three (Taber)
8. Curry Porkrinds (tds1273)
9. No Use For A Name II (Retrovertigo)
10. The Brute Squad (Only Mostly Dead)
11. Living Through Them (Gray Ghost)
12. Not Sure (brickbacon)
13. The Gusterrhoids (Justin Bailey)
14. Garcon's Cedillia (off-board friend of MrSquishy)
15. Return of Ryan Leaf (mhendo)
16. Evil Monkey (MTRG)
17. CMFD (Chuck, off board)
18. Unrelated Siblings (Uncle Brother Walker)
19. Phoenix Redbirds (dalej42)
20. Varlos' Zzzzzzz (VarlosZ)

Munch · #2 07-16-2012, 08:29 AM

If I might make a suggestion - why not register the league, get a good draft time/date, but don't open it up for owners to join until a few weeks before the draft? League apathy in this is about average, but it has a pretty deleterious effect in comparison - ESPECIALLY when we get a deadbeat drafter. Getting EVERYONE active from day one is incredibly important, and I think there's some steam that's lost along the way from signing up to draft day. Just my 2 cents.

SenorBeef · #3 07-16-2012, 11:55 AM

I don't really think there's a problem with opening it early.... I reserve a draft time, send out invites, and people really only just join and then leave it alone for a month until we near draft time. I prefer to give people the maximum amount of time to sign up just in case they're using an e-mail address they only check periodically or something.

I'd also say we're well ahead of the game on league apathy in terms of averages. We've only had a few players over the years who stopped playing and they've been weeded out. Everyone was pretty active last year IIRC - was there anyone who stopped playing at the end?

We also had 100% retention last year for the year before, which is pretty impressive for a 20 man league. Justin Bailey said he wouldn't be back this year, but we've already got 2 good replacements.

Speaking of which - if you aren't planning on taking your slot this year, please say so now.

RetroVertigo · #4 07-16-2012, 12:35 PM

I don't know why but this league is the most enjoyable for me. It is the league I've consistently done the best in, so that may help.

SenorBeef · #5 07-16-2012, 12:53 PM

I like this league, it's definitely different in how you approach it. And I've done pretty amazingly well, one year as points leader and two years as champion. In a 20 man league, that's extremely improbable.

Only Mostly Dead · #6 07-16-2012, 05:06 PM

I've decided to simplify my fall and with that back out of most, if not all, of my FF leagues.

I hereby surrender my spot so somebody new can get in on the fun. Best of luck, all! Well, except SenorBeef. His ass needs to get dethroned.

SenorBeef · #7 07-16-2012, 05:16 PM

Sorry to see you go. I understand that you realize you have no chance to win in any league I'm in.

I went ahead and invited RNATB and Boozahol Squid, P.I. to the league to replace Justin Bailey and Only Mostly Dead. They're both good, reliable players.

dalej42 · #8 07-16-2012, 09:00 PM

Any chance we could move the draft time earlier by about 30 minutes or so? I'm working an overnight shift right now, so I have to leave here by about 1130 Eastern time (1030 central) to get to work on time.

I'm trying to remember how long this draft went last year? If it can be wrapped up in 2 hours or so, I'm fine.

Wilson · #9 07-17-2012, 08:43 AM

If you need another player, I'd be interested.

mhendo · #10 07-19-2012, 12:04 AM

I'm in! Looking forward to it.

The draft time is fine for me.

Uncle Brother Walker · #11 07-21-2012, 10:09 PM

I'm in.

I have a new job that allows us to request time off in advance from the company website, so I can guarantee that I'll be available for draft time.

SenorBeef · #12 07-25-2012, 12:41 AM

Not sure why, but Return of Ryan Leaf/Mhendo had both an open invite, and a taken slot, in the league, which was preventing someone from joining. I deleted the invite, hopefully that doesn't cause any issues.

RetroVertigo · #13 07-25-2012, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SenorBeef

Not sure why, but Return of Ryan Leaf/Mhendo had both an open invite, and a taken slot, in the league, which was preventing someone from joining. I deleted the invite, hopefully that doesn't cause any issues.

If he doesn't drop by in the next few days, maybe a PM should be sent to see if he can still access the league page. Better to sort it out now then the day of the draft.

RetroVertigo · #14 07-25-2012, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetroVertigo

If he doesn't drop by in the next few days, maybe a PM should be sent to see if he can still access the league page. Better to sort it out now then the day of the draft.

I meant email, not a PM.

SenorBeef · #15 08-02-2012, 12:11 AM

Uncle Brother Walker signed up, leaving the only loose ends Varlos, Hamlet, and tds1273. I'm waiting to hear back in multiple leagues with the first two, so hopefully we'll get an answer soon. It's August - so if they don't sign up soon I'm going to give their slots away. There's only so long we can wait while there's still a pool of replacements who haven't committed to their maximum number of leagues yet.

SenorBeef · #16 08-06-2012, 09:21 PM

I'm going to post this to all my leagues.

In our very first draft in the auction league, we ended up running the auction in voice chat like an actual auction. That was before yahoo had auction drafts. Anyway, we don't actually have to hold the draft that way anymore of course, but it was kind of cool to have everyone in the same place able to chat about the draft as it went, it was pretty fun.

I used to only run a free ventrilo server which has a max of 8 people, so I never thought about using it again, but now we run a 15 man SDMB server, so we could fit everyone in there. So I was thinking it would be fun if we all hopped on to voice chat during the draft.

If there's interest, closer to the draft I'll post the server information and help anyone who needs to set it up. We'd be using ventrilo which is free. It'd be cool if everyone had a headset (or webcam mic or whatever) to talk, but even if you don't, you could still log in and listen to the rest of us and respond in the text chat of the draft app.

We'd only be able to fit 15/20 for this league's draft, but I doubt everyone would participate anyway, so that probably won't be a problem. People with mics would be given priority if we were overbooked I suppose.

Really Not All That Bright · #17 08-08-2012, 08:42 AM

The (future) champ is HERE. I'm in the "Vets" division. Since it's my first year, I should be with the noobs, no?

IIRC, the Ventrilo thing worked pretty well during last year's Dynasty League draft but there were only 6-8 of us on. Might get a bit *gabbajfdgsdklgpcsadl* with 15.

Also, is there any way we can move the draft back about half an hour or switch it to a Wednesday? I'm in class until 9:15 on Tuesdays.

Munch · #18 08-08-2012, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Really Not All That Bright

The (future) champ is HERE. I'm in the "Vets" division. Since it's my first year, I should be with the noobs, no?

This is my 4th year, and I'm still in the Newbies division.

Really Not All That Bright · #19 08-09-2012, 09:37 AM

Oh. Never mind, then.

SenorBeef · #20 08-09-2012, 10:42 AM

The division things were originally arbitrary and I had to try to figure out some way to group people despite having no real suggestions or criteria I could think of. So I decided to put the people who were SDMB fantasy vets in one division, the total newbies in another, the giants fans in another (why not, we had 5)...

The current divisions are just the order people joined in. Once the league is full I'll swith them around to form previous divisions.

I proposed we drop divisions last year when they didn't really have a meaningful criteria, but people wanted to keep them.

Really Not All That Bright · #21 08-09-2012, 10:51 AM

You could just change the names. Maybe name them after SDMB fora: the BBQ Pit, Great Debates, etc.

enalzi · #22 08-12-2012, 09:51 AM

Alright folks, new guy here. I'm the Rough and Tumblrs.

Munch · #23 08-13-2012, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SenorBeef

I proposed we drop divisions last year when they didn't really have a meaningful criteria, but people wanted to keep them.

I like the divisions, but they'd be a lot more useful if we could manipulate the schedule to put some emphasis on them (i.e. two games against each divisional team). With just 13 regular season games, we can't do round robin, so why not embrace the difference and target the division? (Of course, I can only imagine what a nightmare futzing with the schedule would be...)

Really Not All That Bright · #24 08-13-2012, 12:19 PM

Still hoping...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Really Not All That Bright

Also, is there any way we can move the draft back about half an hour or switch it to a Wednesday? I'm in class until 9:15 on Tuesdays.

SenorBeef · #25 08-13-2012, 12:55 PM

Definitely can't move it to Wednesday - the first game of the season is that day and I'm guessing a significant chunk of the league wants to watch that game. But the 9:45 eastern slot is actually still available, so we can move it back a half hour.

This draft runs longer than others so if we start that late we're going to run past midnight. Not sure if that works for everyone, but I'll try to ask around.

It's better to make the beginning rather than the end of an auction draft - if you have to leave during the last part of it, you can just go ahead and bid earlier to get your roster filled up. You could ask other people to nominate guys you want maybe. But if you miss the first half hour, you miss out on your chance to get the premium players - unless you pre-value them really high.

Let me try to quickly gather objections before i switch it.

Munch · #26 08-13-2012, 01:11 PM

That's fine with me.

mhendo · #27 08-13-2012, 02:42 PM

It's fine with me, but i'm on the west coast so it's still not late. People in the eastern time zone are going to be most affected.

D_Odds · #28 08-13-2012, 04:47 PM

It will work for me. It's not like those late rounders are much more than guesses.

dalej42 · #29 08-13-2012, 04:50 PM

I'd strongly prefer that the draft not be pushed back any later. But, if it is, I'll make the part that I can. I can draft up until 1130 EST

Uncle Brother Walker · #30 08-13-2012, 11:56 PM

I'm okay with the time change. Just post a official time change after everybody votes.

Really Not All That Bright · #31 08-14-2012, 08:07 AM

Sorry, all. Normally I would just stay on campus and do it there but they are shutting down the building at 9:30 the first month of the semester to do something with the ductwork.

Overly Sentimental · #32 08-14-2012, 02:51 PM

Without objection

Really Not All That Bright · #33 08-16-2012, 07:01 PM

Anyone else?

SenorBeef · #34 08-18-2012, 10:03 AM

Sorry been without internet access for a few days.

I normally wouldn't inconvenience one person to make it equally better for another person, but in this case the burdens aren't quite equal. It's harder to miss the beginning of the draft than the end, especially in auction. If you know you'll be running short on time a bit, you can construct your team a bit faster - we can even allow people who need to go to suggest nominations for other people so they get a shot at the players they want.

Anyway, is it cool with you Dale if I move it up a half hour? I know you may miss the last chunk of the draft, but it's overall easier than having RNATB miss the first chunk of it, and if you draft accordingly you can complete your team.

RetroVertigo · #35 08-18-2012, 10:51 AM

I'd be willing to nominate players to help complete teams for those who need to leave early.

Gray Ghost · #36 08-18-2012, 12:11 PM

Same here. The time's fine, whichever y'all choose. If you need me to dedicate early nominations to someone who needs to leave early, that's fine too.

Darth Sensitive · #37 08-18-2012, 02:36 PM

Still looking for players?

dalej42 · #38 08-18-2012, 03:23 PM

Changing the draft time is fine, I'm sorry I'm such a pain this year, this graveyard schedule is the price I had to pay to get the job here in Chicago. LOL, drafting sober might help improve my teams this year!

Really Not All That Bright · #39 08-18-2012, 11:05 PM

Thanks, dale!

SenorBeef · #40 08-18-2012, 11:58 PM

Draft is set for 9:45pm eastern, Tuesday Sep 4

MrSquishy · #41 08-24-2012, 01:12 PM

Sorry guys, I'm afraid I'm going to have to drop out. I have another in-person live draft I have to run at the same time, and I learned last year I can't run a draft and do an auction at the same time. I apologize for the late notice. The reason I waited so long was that I was trying to get our other draft date/time changed but I could not. My team is Hey There Fancypants. I can't see an option to drop out on the Yahoo site, does the commish have to kick me out?

My apologies once again. Let me know if a spot opens up next year, I definitely enjoyed this league with the auction format and the depth of players drafted.

Munch · #42 08-24-2012, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSquishy

I can't see an option to drop out on the Yahoo site, does the commish have to kick me out?

You go to Yahoo's fantasy football website and click "edit teams".

Really Not All That Bright · #43 08-24-2012, 02:10 PM

Or on the league homepage you can click "If you wish to leave this league, you can delete this team." just above the standings.

SenorBeef · #44 08-24-2012, 04:14 PM

Next late dropper gets de-nutted. Working on replacement.

SenorBeef · #45 08-25-2012, 09:19 PM

Darth sensitive filled that slot. We're full.

We've had some turnover. I may reorganize divisions along some logical line if we're going to rejigger anyway. I like the idea of grouping based on average finish over the years. Any suggestions?